“She spake, I, drawing from beside
my thigh The faulchion keen, with death denouncing
looks, Rush’d on her,—­she, with
a shrill scream of fear, Ran under my raised arm,
seized fast my knees, And in winged accents plaintive
thus began:—­ ’Who, whence thy city,
and thy birth declare,—­ Amazed I see
thee with that potion drenched, Yet unenchanted:
never man before Once passed it through his lips
and lived the same. * * * *
Sheath again Thy sword, and let us on my bed recline,
Mutual embrace, that we may trust henceforth Each
other without jealousy or fear.’ The
goddess spake, to whom I thus replied: ’Oh
Circe, canst thou bid me meek become, And gentle,
who beneath thy roof detain’st My fellow-voyagers.
* * * No, trust me, never will
I share thy bed, Till first, oh goddess, thou consent
to swear That dread, all-binding oath, that other
harm Against myself, thou wilt imagine none.’
I spake, she, swearing as I bade, renounced All
evil purpose, and her solemn oath Concluded, I ascended
next her bed."[1]

[Footnote 1: COWPER’s Odyssey, B.
x, p. 392.]

The story of Wijayo’s interview with Kuweni
is told in nearly the same terms as it appeared in
the Mahawanso in the Rajavali, p. 172.

CHAP. III

THE CONQUEST OF CEYLON BY WIJAYO, B.C. 543, AND THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF BUDDHISM, B.C. 307.

[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]

The sacred historians of Ceylon affect to believe
in the assertion of some mysterious connection between
the landing of Wijayo, and the conversion of Ceylon
to Buddhism, one hundred and fifty years afterwards;
and imply that the first event was but a pre-ordained
precursor of the second.[1] The Singhalese narrative,
however, admits that Wijayo was but a “lawless
adventurer,” who being expelled from his own